Toyota Corolla Engine Trouble

Hi,

I own a 1999 Toyota Corolla driven 158K miles. Recently while driving down a freeway, despite pressing down the pedal, the car would not accelerate. I stopped the car on the shoulder and tried to restart the car. It did not start. I got the car towed to the Toyota dealer. It was suspected that the timing chain might be broken. They checked out the car and told me that 2 of the 4 cylinders are not compressing. They said further checking of the car would cost 1100 dollars. I told them give me a day to think about things. What options do i have here ?

  1. Should i try to sell off the car to the dealer and get whatever i get ? ( what do you think i could get )
  2. Should i get it towed again and take it to another mechanic and ask him to have a look at it ?

Thanks, vivekian

Reply to
vivekian
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What you will get for your car depends on the condition of the car, including the condition of the engine and drivetrain, the equipment on the car, and your location.

How often has the engine oil been changed, and when was the last time the oil was changed?

2) before you have the car towed to another shop, explain to the other shop what happened to your car, what the dealership has checked so far, and what the other shop would charge for a diagnosis.

It does sound like the timing chain is broken, and the cost to repair it depends on what else needs to be fixed. If the engine has been neglected, repair costs will be much higher.

Reply to
Ray O

The condition of the car is not great. The struts and tires were worn out. The engine seemed to be okay until now, although i never got any 30K mile check done.

I got it serviced regularly, although not from standard places. It was changed last week.

Yes, I will do that.

The toyota folks actually said that the timing chain is not broken. Its the cylinders where the problem lies. One question is that is it even worth taking it to a mechanic outside toyota since it involves opening the engine ? The other being would an outside scrap dealer give better value for it as compared to toyota people ?

thanks a bunch, vivekian

Reply to
vivekian

The condition of the car is not great. The struts and tires were worn out. The engine seemed to be okay until now, although i never got any 30K mile check done.

I got it serviced regularly, although not from standard places. It was changed last week.

Yes, I will do that.

The toyota folks actually said that the timing chain is not broken. Its the cylinders where the problem lies. One question is that is it even worth taking it to a mechanic outside toyota since it involves opening the engine ? The other being would an outside scrap dealer give better value for it as compared to toyota people ?

thanks a bunch, vivekian

************** Obviously, a car in poor condition is not worth as much as a similar car in good condition.

The catch with "regular" maintenance is that it has to be done consistently at 5,000 to 7,000 mile intervals. Skipping an oil change even once or twice is enough to cause problems that might not show up for another 10,000 miles.

A cylinder might not develop compression because of a problem with the piston rings or because of a problem with valves not closing properly. Both of these problems can be caused by one or more skipped or over-extended oil change intervals or by using the incorrect oil type.

Re-building the engine will probably be pretty expensive.

It might be only slightly more expensive to have a competent independent shop install a used junk yard or crate engine than to have the dealer tear down your engine, and you would still have to decide whether to have the dealer re-build it or install a junk yard engine.

Besides the engine, if all the car needs are struts and tires, installing a junk yard engine and replacing the struts and tires is still probably less expensive than buying another car.

Reply to
Ray O

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I missed an oil change by a couple of days. But i do regret taking it to a non standard place. Its a big lesson learnt.

What you are saying makes a lot of sense. My fear is that even if i get this fixed (m guessing it would take atleast a 1000 bucks including towing the car to the mechanic) for the

158K miles it has gone through, it would keep needing a lot of future maintainance. If i will need to buy a new car in another one years time, then perhaps its better to go for it now. One thing is that what would be its KBB value because of the replacement engine ? A fair value right now is 3100 dollars.
Reply to
vivekian

I missed an oil change by a couple of days.

But i do regret taking it to a non standard place. Its a big lesson learnt.

******************* Missing the recommended oil change interval by a few days is not going to cause engine failure.

Taking to an independent shop should not cause a problem either, unless the shop used inferior oil filters or incorrect oil, or they made a mistake during the oil change like drain the transmission oil instead of the engine oil or forgot to put oil in the engine. If they caused the damage, I would think that they should pay for the repair.

What you are saying makes a lot of sense. My fear is that even if i get this fixed (m guessing it would take atleast a 1000 bucks including towing the car to the mechanic) for the

158K miles it has gone through, it would keep needing a lot of future maintainance. If i will need to buy a new car in another one years time, then perhaps its better to go for it now. One thing is that what would be its KBB value because of the replacement engine ? A fair value right now is 3100 dollars. **************** The value of a car with a bad engine will go down by about the cost to replace the engine. If it costs $1,000 or $1,500 to replace the engine, the value will go down by about that much.
Reply to
Ray O

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bhai yeh ray o brother jo bhi keh raha hai sounds truly sensible......ur car cost is gna go down d estimated cost of rebuildg it....the question is if u shud go thru the pains of gettin it repaird n then pushin it off ur shoulders or shud u directly sell it to a scrap dealr.......maeri maane toh agar scrap dealr ek competitive price offer krta hai as compard to the one dat u'll get after u get it repaired then i thnk its worth the process......coz it saves u from all d repair pains.......n as u said u need to buy a car in anoder year or so den i thnk its gud time to go thru.....ders no gaurantee dat d repaired car will work fine n will not give u ne problems till d time u sell it....ek baar engine khulne ke baad zaada credibilty india mein toh rehti nahin.......honestly m not sure wat happens in d US in such a situation......rest d decision is urs bro

tk crs

ciao lucky

Reply to
lokesh "The Stud" saluja

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